As We See It: Wanted Help for long-term jobless

But let it never be said politicians won't try to persuade voters they aren't incapable of delivering a solution to something so entrenched and complex as economic inequality.

We'll see. Then again, it's an election year and all bets are off and even the long-term unemployed vote.

That helps explain whey the Senate voted Monday to restore emergency financial benefits for people who have been out of work so long they're finding it nearly impossible to land a job.

The good news is the Senate passed the bill, with six Republicans joining Democrats to ensure bipartisan passage by a 59-33 vote. Good because granting benefits to people out of work for more than six months means they can spend money on food and housing and pump up the general economy. The Senate measure would retroactively restore benefits that were cut off in late December, and maintain them through the end of May. Officials say as many as 2.3 million jobless workers have gone without assistance since the law expired late last year. If renewed, the aid would total about $256 weekly, and in most cases go to men and women who have been off the job for longer than six months.

Unfortunately, benefits for the long-term unemployed are part of a so-called "fairness agenda," promoted by President Obama and Democrats, that includes a measure calling for equal pay for women, who on average make 77 cents for every dollar men are paid, and raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Since neither of these are likely to pass the Republican-controlled House, unemployment benefits could fall by the wayside.

Although seven House Republicans came out Tuesday urging Speaker John Boehner to permit a vote on extending jobless benefits, Boehner's office said support is tied to a bill that would include job measures, which Democrats have said they would oppose.

So, as usual, it seems nothing will get done.

The reality is that only 11 percent of the long-term unemployed will ever regain steady work, according to a recent Princeton University study. The number of people unemployed for more than six months has tripled since the recession began at the end of 2007.

After the federal government cut off extended unemployment extension benefits at the end of 2013, the number of long-term unemployed without any benefits in California has grown sharply, to 1,274,000 people, according to the EDD. California has the third highest rate of long-term unemployed in the country — 3.7 percent of the workforce.

Many conservative Republicans believe extending benefits encourages people to stay jobless and that Obamacare also is to blame for providing an incentive, in the form of subsidies, for people to drop out of the workforce. The reality, however, is that many of the long-term unemployed are workers who lost their jobs at a time when far more people were looking for work than there were job openings. Just being unemployed made it hard to find a new job; being unemployed for more than six months made it far more difficult.

Meanwhile, our communities are grappling with permanently unemployed. Beyond the human tragedy, this bodes ill for any robust or sustainable long-term economic recovery.